A still small voice

according to a few Blog posts, the ladies on the View ridiculed those who "heard God's voice" as mentally ill.

True, those who "hear voices" of any sort could be having auditory hallucinations: Auditory hallucination are often a symptom found in psychotic episodes (from schizophrenia, mania, depressive psychosis,  or illness, fever, drugs, or poisons): that is, a sign of a serious mental illness.

But sometimes they are hynogogic hallucinations: From the border of sleep and awareness. This is not associated with mental illness.

however, God doesn't usually "talk" to us as in a hallucination (at least in my experience).

He talks to us in advice from others. He talks to us in coincidences. And he talks to us in the silence of our hearts when we are quiet.

Like Elijah: when told to wait for the Lord's voice, he ignored the wind, the storm, the rockslide  the earthquake and the fire. And then:

and after the fire a still small voice.

This is how most people know God's voice: it is small and it is quiet and "heard" in your heart, not a hallucination of an actual voice.

(but one note of caution:  often our own will is shouting do this or do that, so if the voice is about a decision, the wise caution to get a second person to discern if you should do it).

the still small voice is the voice of our conscience.


The best place I have seen this portrayed in a book is in the humorous books (link) about Don Camillo, a feisty priest in Northern Italy who often fights against the communist mayor, often using fists. Often at the end of the story, the priest goes to pray to Jesus on the cross, who talks back to him and often corrects him.

The Christ in the crucifix often has far greater understanding than Don Camillo for the troubles of the people, and has to constantly but gently reprimand the priest for his impatience....

According to Guareschi, priests who object to his portrayal of Don Camillo may break their staffs over his head, and Communists who object to his portrayal of Peppone may break a hammer and sickle across his back, but no one is to criticize him over Christ's voice, for that stands for his conscience.

But there are times when a person hears an actual voice and the person is not mentally ill and doesn't usually hear voices.
Often we hear this happening in times of peril or emergencies.

For example, once my father had a tire blowout when he was going 70 mph on the turnpike, and he heard a voice tell him: Pump the breaks pump the breaks. (slamming the breaks will lock them and cause a severe skid, which would have been fatal). No one in the car had said anything, but the voice saved my life and the life of my family.

Subconscious voice? An Angel? My father just shrugged and said he had prayed to "that guy" in our church for a safe trip, so he figured "that guy" told him how to control the car.

"That guy" was the saint portrayed in a statue at the front of our church, the good church father St Athanasius.